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Boston weighs options, including city-run grocery store, to improve food access

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City councilors are addressing ways to help improve access to affordable groceries in Boston’s neighborhoods.

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Boston officials are reportedly weighing the concept of creating government-owned grocery stores to support residents struggling with the rising costs of food.

City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and Councilor Liz Breadon have requested a hearing to explore the idea - emphasizing it was not inspired by a similar proposal from New York City Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, local news outlet Boston 25 News reported.

"The role of government is to step in when the market is failing our residents," Louijeune told Boston 25 News. "The idea of government-sponsored government-subsidized grocers is not a novel idea."
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Louijeune pointed to examples of similar grocery initiatives in Madison, Wisconsin, and Atlanta, Georgia, Boston 25 News reported.

"There's a certain level of urgency because of a federal policy that's cutting SNAP benefits," Breadon told Boston 25 News. "Those of us who don't have any food insecurity sometimes forget the struggles that ordinary working families may have."

An estimated 37% of Massachusetts households faced food insecurity this year - nearly double the 19% reported in 2019, according to Boston 25 News, citing a report from the Greater Boston Food Bank.
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However, one grocery industry expert argues that city-run stores could hurt existing businesses.

Peter Brennan, executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, said that using taxpayer funds for city-run grocery stores would be "a job killer in our communities," according to Boston 25 News.

"Our mom and pop stores operate on very thin profit margins as it is. They are constantly facing rising costs, stricter regulations, and relentless economic pressure," Brennan told Boston 25 News. "The City of Boston should be doing more to support these small businesses that create jobs, support our communities, and provide healthy meals, goods and services to our neighborhoods. Supporting small businesses by cutting taxes and fees and creating programs to help businesses become self-sustaining is a much better use of tax dollars."
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Several other city councilors have also reportedly added their names to the hearing order, which has been sent to committee for consideration. A hearing could take place before the end of the year, according to Boston 25 News.

Mamdani has championed a network of city-run grocery stores. His proposal would establish five publicly funded, rent- and tax-exempt locations across New York City, according to Boston 25 News.

"You don't lower grocery bills by having government-run stores," Ryan Bourne, a top economist at the libertarian leaning Cato Institute think tank, told Fox Business earlier this year. "Government-run entities have no market discipline - no need to earn profits, compete, or serve customers efficiently. That leads to bloated costs, empty shelves, and zero accountability."
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Ruthzee Louijeune, Liz Breadon and Peter Brennan did not immediately respond to FOX Business request for comment.
FOX Business' Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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Boston officials explore city-run grocery stores to combat rising food prices: report

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Boston officials reportedly consider city-run grocery stores as food insecurity affects 37% of Massachusetts households, nearly double the rate from 2019.

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2024 Net Zero Carbon Zoning Initiative | Bostonplans.org

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Active zoning initiatives being coordinated by the Planning Department. Find more information inside each initiative, including details, associated files, and contact information.

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Local News
Rising prices and impending SNAP disruptions mean that a discussion about publicly-owned grocery stores is more necessary than ever, some officials say.

Could publicly-owned grocery stores be feasible in Boston? It's a question that the Boston City Council is set to explore in depth soon, after a majority of the body showed support for a hearing order about the topic Wednesday.

"We live in the richest country in the world, and there are children and young people and elders going to bed hungry at night. While there's an abundance of food, we are literally plowing thousands of tons of food into landfill," Councilor Liz Breadon said as she introduced the hearing order.

Publicly-owned grocery stores could be valuable tools in helping residents burdened by rising food costs and those potentially facing the loss of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Breadon said.

Food prices in August 2025 were more than 3% higher than in August 2024, according to USDA data, and prices are expected to continue to rise in 2026.

At the same time, SNAP benefits are set to be disrupted by the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law earlier this year. Some 40,000 SNAP recipients in Greater Boston are likely to be subject to more restrictive work requirements, according to an analysis from Boston Indicators. While many of these people will be able to demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements, some will not. In addition, the new administrative burden will likely dissuade otherwise eligible recipients from pursuing their SNAP benefits.

Food insecurity is surging in Massachusetts. The Greater Boston Food Bank's latest annual report found that 37% of Massachusetts households faced food insecurity this year, up from 19% in 2019.

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune cosponsored the hearing order, saying that officials should look to examples in Atlanta, Wisconsin, and Illinois. She advocated for a broader discussion about ways in which the city can support nonprofit grocers, citing the closure of Daily Table stores around the city earlier this year.

"Now is the time to have these conversations," Louijeune said. "This is a timely conversation to explore our fragile food network."

Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, another cosponsor of the hearing order, urged her colleagues and constituents to view food access as a basic human right.

"We talk about housing as a human right ... and the city and the state gets involved in that. Food is also a basic human right: access to healthy, nutritious food," she said.

Councilors Julia Mejia, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana, Ben Weber, and Brian Worrell also added their names to the hearing order. It will be the subject of a future discussion where city officials, nonprofit workers, and others will be asked to answer questions posed by City Council members.

The value of publicly-owned grocery stores became a hot-button political topic this year after Zohran Mamdani surged to a surprise victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who is now the frontrunner to become New York City's next mayor, has advocated for a program that would build five municipal grocery stores.

"Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers," Mamdani's policy platform reads.

Breadon's hearing order makes no mention of Mamdani, and he was not mentioned during Wednesday's meeting.

Should Boston open publicly-owned grocery stores? Why or why not? Fill out the form below, or email [email protected] , and your answer may be featured in a future story.

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Boston City Council to explore publicly-owned grocery stores

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Rising prices and impending SNAP disruptions mean that a discussion about publicly-owned grocery stores is more necessary than ever, some officials say.

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Most lines run till 12:30 am and now on Fridays and Saturdays they run till 1:30 am on most lines and till 2:30 on the red line, The issue is that this extra hour is not enough time for most working citizens.

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Primary: The working class people who need transportation at later hours and work super late; Students who go out late

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Boston’s new zoning amendment requires net zero carbon for new buildings - Boston Agent Magazine

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New buildings in Boston will be required to achieve net zero carbon emission standards before opening due to a new zoning amendment.

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https://www.its.ucla.edu/news/for-the-press/congestion-pricing/

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https://www.bostonplans.org/planning-zoning/planning-initiatives/flood-resiliency-building-guidelines-zoning-over

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/24/flood-boston-climate-deniers-trump-administration-coastal-city-resilient#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20National%20Oceanic,or%20two%20higher%20by%202100.

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Flood Resiliency Building Guidelines & Zoning Overlay District | Bostonplans.org

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Active planning initiatives being coordinated by the Planning Department. Find more information inside each initiative, including details, associated files, and contact information.

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We believe it is not efficient enough especially since the extension is only on weekends and not working days. We believe the extension should be much longer and during weekdays as well. As college students we also believe that it is safer to take public transportation then to call private car services (Ubers etc.) Having the T lines open later can also minimize the risk of citizens drunk driving

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Bus lanes in Boston make public transit faster and more reliable at the expense of car traffic being slowed down by narrower streets, which makes it harder to maneuver around.

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Congestion pricing describes the raising of prices to drive through congested areas, or areas with a higher demand through tolls. This can be beneficial to the city as not only can it reduce congestion and traffic, due to unwillingness to pay tolls, but it can also increase the use of public transport.

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https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/5-cities-with-congestion-pricing/756987/#:~:text=Congestion%20pricing%20acts%20as%20a,reducing%20other%20vehicle%2Drelated%20taxes.

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In 2025, New York City joined other major global cities that have implemented tolling programs to reduce traffic in select areas. Other U.S. cities are considering similar plans.

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Boston is next to the water so it will be affected by coastal and riverine flooding when a storm hits and also due to rise of sea level.

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With rising grocery prices and inaccessibility to affordable food, City-run grocery stores are being proposed. This issue is exacerbated by the recent controversy surrounding Market Basket and issues with SNAP. On one hand, city-run stores could hurt existing businesses, however, not implementing public solutions could harm Boston residents.

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A simple solution that can cut traffic and air pollution and get us to work faster may seem pie in the sky. But it's out there, and it's gaining traction in cities around the world. Congestion pricing refers to a fee levied on drivers that's intended to convince enough people to avoid hopping in their car at rush hour. Or, as the U.S. Department of Transportation frames it, it's "a way of harnessing the power of the market to reduce the waste associated with traffic congestion." The ultimate goal is to make the transportation system work better for everyone -and clean transportation advocates say it's most effective when it reinvests the profits gained into local public transit systems and other equitable means of getting around town.

New York City congestion pricing

Congestion pricing proposals tend to inspire hearty debate. That was certainly true for New York City. Decades of discourse preceded the Big Apple's decision to move forward with its plan, which was followed by two years of delays, courtesy of the Trump administration. While transportation officials in New York have been advocating for similar measures going back to the 1970s, it was former mayor Michael Bloomberg who launched a serious push to impose a user fee on vehicles entering Manhattan's busiest streets in 2007; the latest plan will have commuters who drive to work paying a fee starting at the end of 2023.

Despite the obstacles to congestion pricing over the years, transportation leaders stuck with it because they believed in their mission. The goal was twofold: unclog the busiest streets, where unchecked car use imposes congestion and air pollution, creates safety hazards, and gums up bus service; and raise a billion dollars a year for New York's ailing subway, bus, and rail system.

Over the years, some stakeholders raised questions about how congestion pricing could work, not just to reduce traffic but to do so in a fair way. Some asked whether congestion pricing would hurt lower-income city residents. That is simply not the case. We know that people driving into Manhattan at rush hour are overwhelmingly wealthier. After all, a space in a parking lot can set you back more than $30 a day.

"A very, very small portion of drivers who enter Midtown Manhattan during business hours are economically disadvantaged," says Eric Goldstein, a senior attorney and New York City environment director at NRDC.

In 2017, the Community Service Society (CSS), the city's leading anti-poverty organization, completed an analysis of who would be impacted by congestion pricing in the Big Apple. It concluded that only 4 percent of working residents of the city's outer boroughs (that's jargon for Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island) commute to jobs in Manhattan by car. In contrast, 56 percent of outer-borough working residents use public transit to get to work and would benefit from the funds generated by congestion pricing. The CSS study also found that only 2 percent of the city's working poor would potentially be subject to the congestion fee.

Do you have to pay to enter NYC?

Already, many drivers do pay. For example, anyone who crosses into Manhattan by car, say, via the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge or the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, knows that it'll cost you a pretty penny.

Under the new congestion pricing scheme, drivers entering the central business district-i.e., Midtown or downtown Manhattan-will have to pay as well, equalizing costs for motor vehicle commuters and reducing traffic and pollution from drivers who would travel miles out of their way just to avoid the existing tolls.

But the new costs (which have yet to be determined) will have little downside for low-income New Yorkers. Census data show that income and car use correlate strongly- especially so in New York. The vast majority of low-income residents use buses, commuter rail, ferries, bicycles, and the subway to get around. And they will benefit directly from the congestion pricing fees, which will support a big chunk of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 2020-2024 capital program to improve services. Funds raised will support additions like replacing broken signals and outdated train cars, among other upgrades, like expanding accessibility for riders.

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Fees charged for driving on busy city roads reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality while also generating sorely needed funding for the transit systems that many people rely on for their daily commutes.

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Boston ramps up efforts to safeguard against coastal flooding from rising sea levels

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Amidst a period of frequent natural disasters, an ever-brightening light shines on climate change, a major contributor to these worsening environmental conditions. However, climate change has another weapon in its arsenal, which may have a devastating impact on coastal cities like Boston in the near future — rising sea levels.

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Residents of Boston or nearby area (especially, seaport district, Quincy,etc)

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developers, property owners, policy makers, community...

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Open with an anecdote about how they got into an accident with a drunk driver because of late night driving. The statistic we would open with would be a percentage of citizens who work late night jobs that don't get out until 12:30. Another statistic about students who go out late at night.

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Residents

Families

Health Care Workers

Students

Low-Income Consumers

Grocery Store Owners

Local

National

Local Government

City

State

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Boston Planning and Development Agency Approves Proposal for Net Zero Carbon Zoning

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On June 13, 2024, the Boston Planning & Development Agency (“BPDA”) Board of Directors approved a proposed zoning text amendment regarding Net Zero Carbon (“NZC Zoning”) and authorized its submission to the Boston Zoning Commission for adoption. Under NZC Zoning, projects filed on or after July 1, 2025, must demonstrate Net Zero Carbon (“NZC”) readiness and provide embodied carbon reports during their planning and construction phases. The amendment applies to new buildings that are subject to development review under Article 80 of the Boston Zoning Code and have at least 20,000 square feet of gross floor area or 15 or more dwelling units. It also applies to additions of at least 50,000 square feet of gross floor area but exempts additions for “Hospital Use” as defined by the Zoning Code. The provision does not apply to renovation projects or changes of use that do not otherwise trigger the thresholds for new construction or additions. NZC Zoning amends Article 37 of the Zoning Code relating to Green Buildings and is intended to advance Boston’s goal for carbon neutrality by introducing new sustainability requirements. The BPDA expects the zoning provision will support decarbonization of new buildings by advancing electrification, reducing use of fossil fuels, and encouraging the use of low-carbon materials. The new zoning does not replace the current LEED certifiability requirement, which remains in place, but it eliminates reference to the Boston Green Building credits.

The zoning amendment builds off of and complements Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (“BERDO”), which was adopted in 2021. BERDO imposes annual greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emission limits on existing buildings, with the limits varying depending on building use. The limits become progressively more stringent over time until reaching net zero emissions by 2050 for all use categories. NZC Zoning takes this scheme a step further by requiring new buildings to be designed to meet the BERDO 2050 emission standards (net zero) upon construction. In effect, this will expedite the BERDO schedule for net zero compliance by moving emissions to zero for new projects starting on the 2025 effective date for the zoning amendment. However, hospitals, general manufacturing, and high ventilation laboratory buildings will have phased-in net zero emission requirements that push the net zero date out to 2035 for labs and 2045 for the other categories. Nevertheless, even for these three categories, NZC Zoning will accelerate the schedule required for existing buildings under BERDO. The phase-in process recognizes the complexities and unique energy demands these types of structures require, considering their specialized equipment and technological constraints.

BERDO (and, hence, NZC Zoning) provides three compliance options: (1) emission reduction; (2) use of renewable energy, including renewable energy certificates; and (3) alternative compliance payments (“ACP”), which are based on the average cost per metric ton (currently $234) of carbon dioxide to decarbonize buildings. Emission reductions are achieved through building retrofits or energy-efficient improvements. Renewable energy compliance reduces emissions from electricity through the installation or purchase of renewable energy—e.g., solar or wind. The ACP option allows building owners to comply by paying $234 for each metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions that exceeds their emissions limit.

The NZC Zoning amendment also requires projects to report on embodied carbon. Embodied carbon refers to carbon dioxide emissions associated with manufacturing, transportation, and construction of building materials throughout the entire life cycle of a product. According to the BPDA, it accounts for almost half of a building’s total GHG emissions over time. Larger projects, with at least 50,000 square feet of gross floor area must conduct an embodied carbon life cycle assessment. Smaller projects only need to identify their embodied carbon through a checklist or sustainability narrative in a format to be provided by the BPDA. The BPDA hopes to use the reports to better understand environmental and cost impacts of regulating embodied carbon and eventually move to a regulatory scheme limiting the amount used in new construction projects. Currently, there is no standardized approach to reporting and reducing embodied carbon, although Cambridge and Newton already have embodied carbon reporting requirements for construction materials (e.g., wood, concrete, steel, aluminum, and glass).

The new zoning will be implemented through the Article 80 development review process. As part of its initial Article 80 filing (e.g., the project notification form or small project review application), a project must demonstrate compliance with the net zero carbon requirements by completing a BPDA checklist and project narrative showing that the building is designed to be net zero prior to operation, or in other words “net zero ready.” Preliminary embodied carbon information is required as well. Updates and refinements of the documentation are due before issuance of the building permit and certificate of occupancy to ensure the building is maintaining its NZC readiness. For large project review projects, the final embodied carbon life cycle assessment is due before issuance of the certification of compliance. Moreover, prior to operation, the developer must submit a Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions Ready Acknowledgement Letter acknowledging that the project must comply with the GHG emissions standards under zoning and BERDO. Once the building is in operation, the BERDO program will take over and enforce annual compliance with emission standards established by zoning.

The NZC Zoning amendment now needs approval of the Boston Zoning Commission before it becomes added to the Zoning Code. The Zoning Commission is expected to consider the proposal at its July meeting.

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Commuters of all types are stakeholders in this debate, as well as anyone driving on the roads. Tourists, bikers, and the city of Boston are lesser stakeholders.

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The stakeholders include government agencies such as DOTs and MPOs, public and private transportation providers, and the general public, including commuters and city residents.

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Improving flooding protection in the city and also addressing climate change that causing rise in sea level.

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The problem is that Boston’s outdated zoning regulations allow new buildings to keep producing high carbon emissions, preventing the city from reaching its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

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With careful planning, city-run grocery stores could benefit the city overall.

(Need to research more)

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A compelling statistic to put at the beginning could be the difference in traffic accidents on major roads with bus lanes versus those without.

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MBTA late-night service isn’t enough, readers say. Here’s why.

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Starting this weekend, the MBTA will begin its late-night extended service. But readers aren’t totally satisfied. Here’s why.

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3. There needs to be more bus lanes on Boston roads to allow safer transportation for those traveling by personal cars or bikes that need space to maneuver around the buses.

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According to The Greater Boston Food Bank, in 2024, an estimated 1.9 million Massachusetts residents are food insecure, representing 34% of state households.

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19 days of flooding in 2024, and expected to be similar in 2025. They are predicting it will 20cm higher in 2030 and 46cm in 2050.

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We believe that congestion pricing can be an efficient way to reduce congestion and traffic in the city, as it can compel many more people to use public transport. Moreover, this can benefit the environment and make our streets a much more calm and safe environment.

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We are against the idea of having newly constructed buildings have a net zero carbon emission due to the higher cost in order to fulfill the net zero requirement for carbon emission.

Reason:

1: The additional costs to make a new building have a net zero carbon emission rate are high and could be used for other purposes.

2. The additional costs have to be covered, usually by the general public who use these buildings (increased rent, prices, ect).

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https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/bus-priority

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Controversial Boylston Street bus lane to be removed after complaints, Boston mayor says

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Boston is reversing course on a dedicated and controversial bus lane on a busy road after months of complaints from residents, drivers and businesses.

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Improved access to good food helps overall health

City-run grocery stores could put pressure on smaller local businesses.

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Dedicated bus lanes would:

-Increase saftey for drivers and bikers on the road by splitting up traffic

-Increase speed of the bus system, allowing more people to utilize public transportation to commute or travel around the city

-Increase reliability of the bus system, increasing ridership because riders know they can rely on the busses to get to work on time

-These increases in ridership would decrease traffic overall in the city

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1. Not only does opening the MBTA service later create less of a risk for harm for college students, but it can also lead to greater compensation for the city as many college students will be more likely to use this transportation than another form.

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This landfill has compacted over time, so when high tides sweep in or it rains heavily, the water has nowhere to go. Downtown Boston is no stranger to huge puddles.

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A compelling statistic we can utilize to grab the readers attention is that within the first six months of New York's use of congestion pricing, they have seen an 11% reduce in vehicle entry, a 14% decrease in crashes, and a 25% reduction in traffic delays within the zone.

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The T being very vulnerable to flooding.

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BOSTON'S ROADWAYS and docks have only just dried after the latest King Tide, and facing a future of higher sea level rise and more flood events, the city is doubling down on a combination of permanent and short-term solutions to shore up its coastline. Some of those temporary options - known as deployable flood barriers - will be showcased in a novel city tour on Friday.

The city of Boston is encouraging people to stroll through its hopefully not-too-soggy streets on Friday for its first " deployables day." Across the seaport and downtown areas, mobile flood walls will snap into place guarding major buildings, greenways, and T stations.

"Boston is among the most vulnerable cities in the country to flooding," the event page notes. "As sea levels rise, damaging floods will shift from a rare occurrence to a common reality."

The event is a way to get residents more familiar with the look and usage of deployables as the city heads into winter - its peak flooding season.

"We always need to be planning for coastal adaptation across the city, and looking at it at a broad scale, but also on a site-by-site basis as well," said Joe Christo, managing director of the climate resilience-focused Stone Living Lab. "I think that you really need to have a network of different approaches to address Boston's 47 miles of coastline."

Deployable flood barriers can mean many different things, but they are all temporary ways to block water.

Boston's climate resilience design standards lay out a host of options - some that are pre-installed at the location and can be raised up when needed, mobile options like sand bags brought to and from a site, or systems that deploy and retract automatically if flooding reaches a certain level. Barriers can be rigid walls or soft and flexible. They can be tubes or containers filled with water, soil, or rock. Some connect to other permanent flood control systems or stand alone.

Most cities now lean away from single-use barriers like sandbags and toward reusable laminate or metal panels that can be brought to the site on short notice or raised from a hidden flat position at sidewalk-level when flooding is expected.

The city's strategies to address flood risk are "focused on different time horizons," said Chris Osgood, the director of the Office of Climate Resilience. While Boston works on long-term mitigation-plus-open-space projects like Martin's Park in the Seaport or McConnell Park in Dorchester, weather events and tides aren't holding off to fit a government timeline. And capital projects take years, even decades to come to fruition.

"The future really is more about transforming the coastline," Osgood said, "but because those projects will take time, there is an opportunity for us to think about some of these interim measures."

Much of Boston's resiliency efforts depend on private development. Several of the major buildings along the waterfront have used portable barriers for years. Atlantic Wharf Tower stores its temporary flood walls offsite until they're needed, erecting unfolding linkable AquaFence barriers that can hold off water from rushing through.

The barriers may be temporary, but there still needs to be coordination with the city. If flood barriers are going to block rights-of-way, the property owners have to get approval from the public works divisions. Any building with deployable flood walls must be in communication with inspectional services and emergency services, plus meet certain review standards.

MBTA stations are major points of vulnerability to flooding as well. In 1996, flooding around the Fenway Portal entrance to the Green Line caused almost $70 million in damage and shut down major portions of the line for two months. While temporary measures have been in place since then, a massive 2019-2020 overhaul of its flood protection systems - including floodgates, large steel doors, and pumping systems - offered a more long-term fix and cost $22.2 million.

Sturdy, industrial looking metal panels can surround the Aquarium station entrances when waters rise.

The Climate Ready Boston plan meshes natural coastal solutions, permanent flood barriers, and networks of deployables at sites that are vulnerable during certain flooding events. It isn't that the city wants every property to start throwing up personal seawalls, but deployables could be used in more locations if property owners and residents are aware of the option.

"I think that comprehensively planning for climate resilience and coastal resilience requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and engaging residents in every step of that process is essential," Christo said. Inherently, an awareness event around deployables is also an awareness event about the risks of climate change and flooding.

"The goal for any major city is to not have to utilize these deployables," he said. "These are an interim solution, and as cities like Boston are implementing larger scale climate adaptation approaches, it will hopefully reduce the need for deployables at a site-by-site basis."

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With flood season approaching, it's 'deployables day' in Boston - CommonWealth Beacon

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Most cities now lean away from single-use barriers like sandbags and toward reusable laminate or metal panels that can be brought to the site on short notice or raised from a hidden flat position at sidewalk-level when flooding is expected.

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What do we feel about traffic in Boston